Comments on: Where's my image?http://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image/
Comments on MetaFilter post Where's my image?Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:34:17 -0800Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:34:17 -0800en-ushttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss60Where's my image?http://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image
<a href="http://tineye.com">TinEye </a>is the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology. <br /><br /><em>Every day TinEye's spiders crawl the web for additional images. Using sophisticated pattern recognition algorithms, TinEye creates a unique and compact digital signature or 'fingerprint' for each one and adds it to the index.
When you want to find out where an image is being used on the web, you submit it to TinEye. The attributes of the image are analyzed instantly, and its fingerprint is compared to the fingerprint of every single image in the TinEye search index. The result? A detailed list of any websites using that image, worldwide.</em>post:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:30:35 -0800monospaceimagesearchenginesearchidentificationpatternrecognitionBy: bzhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226479
Well, the site may be the first stop for those looking for infringers. Obviously.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226479Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:34:17 -0800bzBy: afx237vihttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226493
This is for porn, right?comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226493Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:41:36 -0800afx237viBy: DUhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226499
Not just the first stop for copyright holders, but a stop for nobody but them. I mean, I guess I could look for versions of Mona Lisa, but it doesn't seem like there's a lot of demand for that.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226499Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:47:11 -0800DUBy: Mitheralhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226501
Do you have to create an account to search?comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226501Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:48:11 -0800MitheralBy: Wolfdoghttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226505
Yep. garbage@mailinator.com / garbage
I think it's pretty interesting, even if it's not entirely there yet. It was 2/10 on images I tried and thought it would be likely to find. <a href="http://tineye.com/search/23ca5948314ecf417f42792414908b53241d169f">These</a> <a href="http://tineye.com/search/50dbc59148982d0f404152f37d12fc8148288da9">two</a> (seems you'll have to be logged in to see the results, even). In the latter case, it finds a couple that are pretty nontrivial variations.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226505Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:52:47 -0800WolfdogBy: chunking expresshttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226506
Yeah, you have to create an account to search. I'm not sure why, since it's a public beta. (This might have made sense when the site was closed off to new users.)comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226506Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:53:34 -0800chunking expressBy: chunking expresshttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226508
And yeah, when it works it's straight up voodoo magic.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226508Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:54:22 -0800chunking expressBy: Wolfdoghttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226510
The "compare" gadget is really smart about lining up the matching bits.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226510Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:57:07 -0800WolfdogBy: DUhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226511
I'd be interested in knowing how they did the nontrivial variations. I accidentally chose an <a href="http://tineye.com/search/feb4f1fddcf93e7f51b514fc6cc56bf6c156bca8?page=2">altered version of a famous image</a> and it still found the originals, including cropped ones.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226511Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:57:16 -0800DUBy: homodigitalishttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226513
Since when is posting corporate propaganda oke on MF?
I tried TinEye many times, because image search is often very important for my business. The search engine hardly found anything. "Not in index" was it's usual reply.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226513Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:59:13 -0800homodigitalisBy: Mitheralhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226516
Thanks Wolfdog.
Not too surprisingly it finds <a href="http://tineye.com/search/f2415c443306615884bc744741d52d7d3ea1ffb2">666 matches</a> to this <a href="http://mitheral.ca/images/Polaroid/kitten_die.jpg">kitten with gun image</a>. I actually thought it'd be more but I imagine there is a lot of leeching going on. More impressively it finds <a href="http://tineye.com/search/b4ed560eec5f9b4bdb0b6b3437e2e4cbf472ab45">8 matches</a> for the original of this <a href="http://mitheral.ca/images/Polaroid/MV-Grammy.gif">'shop</a> job.
I like that you can link to the searches. They should do a image search crawler like webcrawler had.
<b>homodigitalis</b> <a href='http://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226513'>writes</a> <em>"Since when is posting corporate propaganda oke on MF?"</em>
Since it's cool.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226516Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:02:07 -0800MitheralBy: burnmp3shttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226520
<i>Not just the first stop for copyright holders, but a stop for nobody but them.</i>
It can help copyright infringers too. Let's say you wanted to find a larger version of an <a href="http://higher-frequency.com/j_release/may07/!!!/photo.jpg">album cover</a>, you could use this to find a <a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61KRr5%2B96tL.jpg">larger version</a>.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226520Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:07:22 -0800burnmp3sBy: wreckingballhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226537
with any luck, this will, in time, do away with the "help me identify this [usually shitty] painting" threads on AskMe.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226537Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:19:02 -0800wreckingballBy: krautlandhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226543
is a single press-release text cum link enough for an fpp?
<small>the idea is good but it doesn't really work for me. it didn't find four images I know are used on other sites.</small>comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226543Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:21:51 -0800krautlandBy: echo targethttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226546
Excellent idea, burnmp3s. I just tried to find a printably larger version of <a href="http://tineye.com/search/fcdfce88bbcc1f146ba425e66fa8e2ae8b5b6aab">this excellent Solidarity poster</a>. No luck, but I note that it finds other images that include the text that's partially obscured in the original. I'm impressed.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226546Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:22:38 -0800echo targetBy: echo targethttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226547
Wow, I really think a lot of things are excellent today. Have I mentioned excelling?comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226547Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:23:12 -0800echo targetBy: Mitheralhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226559
Also good for finding an original of an image that has either been photoshopped or branded with a web site's logo.
Disappointedly <a href="http://tineye.com/search/5313dc620db276dd7bed1e71ca3b832c3d55e143">this</a> (NSFW) didn't find any of the original.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226559Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:36:47 -0800MitheralBy: horsemuthhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226568
I find the name to be a strange choice. I mean, if a "tin ear" is a deficiency, why would a "Tin Eye" be any different?comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226568Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:45:30 -0800horsemuthBy: GuyZerohttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226572
TinEye is put out by Idee which is a tiny little software company in Toronto run by some cool people.
Their actual business is scanning print publications looking for copyright infringement - their technology for analyzing magazine pages is amazing. They can do matches against very low-res images and they they have one demo where they separate a magazine cover into over two dozen source images used to create a composite. TinEye is cool but honestly, it's just the tip of the iceberg.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226572Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:45:57 -0800GuyZeroBy: Nerrohttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226585
I think they ripped off the name "Tineye" from the Mistborn series written by Brandon Sanderson.
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistborn#Tineye">Wiki - Mistborn:Tineye</a>comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226585Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:53:13 -0800NerroBy: KokuRyuhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226601
The hottie has a Mac. What's not to like?comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226601Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:09:03 -0800KokuRyuBy: Harald74http://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226612
You could also use it to try and verify that the image you're about to use really <i>is</i> public domain. Or find a larger version of a free image.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226612Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:26:11 -0800Harald74By: nomisxidhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226626
What amazes me is that it turns out that in addition to the 2000+ myspace pages that use my picture of some punk kid at fremont fair, it turns out there are some people who actually went to the trouble of re-hosting my image, instead of just hot-linking to it like everyone else. I could actually file my first DMCA take-down request. 'cause that'd be so punk =pcomment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226626Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:38:37 -0800nomisxidBy: inthe80shttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226721
I was thinking about using it for larger album covers, but noticed it couldn't find bigger copies for some fairly well known albums and gave up pretty quickly.
Then I decided to try a parody album cover someone submitted to one of my websites to see if it was getting copied by site scrapers.
<a href="http://tineye.com/search/8d9756003f54c895d261ae3afd845dd78512bdb8">The</a> <a href="http://tineye.com/search/c6203f54261fc1999b81204ab91cb497916b28cc">results</a>
Even with some altercations to the shapes on the original cover it could still pick out enough of the original to spot the originals. Interesting algorithm at the very least.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226721Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:26:35 -0800inthe80sBy: fingshttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226785
<a href='http://tineye.com/search/39d92b76132401bc37f05a48a78cdba8923c7d53'>Metafilter Logo</a> (have to be logged in to TinEye).comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226785Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:21:23 -0800fingsBy: Mitheralhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226842
<b>nomisxid</b> <a href='http://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226626'>writes</a> <em>"it turns out there are some people who actually went to the trouble of re-hosting my image, instead of just hot-linking to it like everyone else"</em>
Well it's the polite thing to do.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226842Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:06:30 -0800MitheralBy: diablo37http://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226846
oh good, I can finally check to see what dirty pictures there might be of me out there.
!comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226846Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:09:29 -0800diablo37By: nomisxidhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226868
Politeness is the new punk.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226868Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:20:25 -0800nomisxidBy: dhartunghttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2226943
Mitheral: Your comment doesn't make clear whether you know that that image is an outtake from <a href="http://www.cddesign.com/covertalk/archives/body_painted_pink_floyd_cover_.html">this</a>. [<a href="http://www.cddesign.com/covertalk/images/pink-floyd-body-paint.html">hq</a>][<a href="http://www.stormthorgerson.com/">photog</a>]
And inputting it into Tineye, I must say, my! Yes, that is a fetching <a href="http://tineye.com/search/36f427b2fa3acb5a0c7b266cba966b2bf49c46e6">image</a>.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2226943Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:05:50 -0800dhartungBy: Mitheralhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2227096
Ya that's what I was hoping tineye would find. Considering some of the sample searches I figured it had a chance. You can see on pg 39 of your search that it does manage to find some pictures of posters taken at <a href="http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/248/26693/1h/common.ameba.jp/profile/user_image/2f/sunflower007/10006380284_s.jpg">oblique angles</a> which is pretty amazing. Page 38 has a link where the image has had the girls magic wanded onto a <a href="http://c8.wrzuta.pl/wm6185/7fda52c5002914234699e835/laski%20i">different background</a>.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2227096Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:37:43 -0800MitheralBy: BrotherCainehttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2227183
Which will happen first, getting bought by Google, or getting a dwarf fetishist in trouble for accidently downloading child porn?comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2227183Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:33:22 -0800BrotherCaineBy: squalorhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2227222
<a href="http://tineye.com/search/e7ff323f229931e3db186183909f67dfec7652aa">114 results.</a>comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2227222Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:48:11 -0800squalorBy: Rumplehttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2227682
This is pretty awesome. I thought I'd get a lot of false positives on a <a href="http://tineye.com/search/55b42e7a9f6f32bb097d59ac3e56d849dc0699ae">piece </a>of generic NWC art, but no ....
Also, it is fast. I thought it might churn away for a little while....comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2227682Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:44:45 -0800RumpleBy: joeclarkhttp://www.metafilter.com/74296/Wheres-my-image#2227876
GuyZero beat me to it. I flat-out heckled Idée at a BarCamp two years ago and, within 15 minutes of further demonstrations, I was turned completely around and am now a believer. It is beyond amazing what their main software application can do. I was told that some magazines just do not bother preclearing images from large stock agencies with which they already have accounts; they use what they want, send Idée a PDF upon publication, and get a bill for what they used.
The software can take a scan of a thumbnail in a newspaper (e.g., a columnist's headshot), with its attendant line screen and moiré, and find the original photo from which it was cropped.
Now, TinEye (indeed, a curious name) is a slightly different technology, but only slightly. As with all indices, <em>it can't find what it hasn't indexed</em>. But they have phenomenal technology and this thing will very likely get much better in no time at all.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74296-2227876Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:32:45 -0800joeclark